Serbia: EPS considering to acquire stakes in neighboring power utilities

21. March 2017. / News Serbia Energy

According to Serbian media, state-owned power utility EPS is planning to expand in the region, as the Government of Serbia has formed a commission, which is tasked to assess the profitability of acquiring stakes in power utilities in the neighboring countries.

Chairman of the EPS’ Supervisory Board Branko Kovacevic explained that this is an old idea, as there have been talks on acquiring stakes in neighboring power utilities for some time now. He said that the plan is to buy electricity distribution companies in the Republic of Srpska and Montenegro with the goal of gaining possibility to invest in electricity generation projects in these countries.

The Republic of Srpska is especially interesting for this reason, since many joint projects with local power utility ERS could be sped up. One of these projects is the construction of three hydropower plants on the river Drina, the so-called middle Drina project. The estimated value of the project is 870 million euros, and combined power output of the three HPPs should be 320 MW.

Serbian Government has started expanding to energy sectors of other countries in the region in late 2015, when Serbian state-owned electricity transmission system operator EMS acquired 10 % stake in its Montenegrin counterpart CGES for some 13.8 million euros.